Hi,

 

I'm Pete from South Oxfordshire, UK.

Currently drive a 66 plate BMW 230i which I've had since new and have done 50k miles, and my wife has a 66 plate Golf GTD Mk7 hatch also since new.

I previously had a 14 plate Mk7 Golf TDI (150ps with GT trim, DSG with paddles) for 50k miles and 2.5 years. 

Before that I have run a few cars the late 80's and 90's (briefly a 987cc Nissan K10 micra, 1990 VW breadvan polo 1043cc, 1998 Nissan Primera GT, 1998 Nissan Silvia Spec R Japanese import) so I've not had many since passing my test in 1996 and missed out cars from the noughties completely.

 

I'm a bit into cars, done many track days over the years. Love driving B roads, though I don't treat them like a closed race track and have been a keen cyclist and still do a bit of that. Nearly all of my work commuting since 2015 has been on nice country B roads with little traffic.  I'm more about cornering, composure and feel than grunt and I like manual gearboxes and petrol engines so I'm considering the 1.5 tsi manual SE L with DCC, or if I decided to forego the manual box I'd consider a petrol sportline with or without DCC. I know the superb is no sports car I just don't want something wallowing or lurching about too much or feeling too floaty so I definitely need a test drive. If its not too far off the Mk7 golf hatch it will be okay. I was particularly impressed by the suspension damping on my TDI GT trim, it's as though the dampers have separate low and high speed damping circuits (I also mountain bike so know a little about this). The GTD doesn't seem to much of an upgrade in this regard or in terms of performance over the 150 tdi. The 230i is a little more jiggly at lower and normal speeds but remains composed at noticeably higher speeds than the golfs through (well sighted) bends and being 250bhp and rwd and a manual is a much more rewarding drive generally.

 

Have a young son who will be two this summer, We have just about coped with the the boot space with our current cars thus far, I am very good at packing. Most of the time we are separately driving to work, can be either of us going via the Nursery with our son. It's 3-4 times a year that we need to travel somewhere loaded up with stuff.

I'm 6"5 with 37" inside leg so isofix rear seats have a big impact on front seat space in both our current cars. Ruling out Golf and Octavia estates for this reason despite big load bays, hence considering Passat and Superb.

I'd tick the front passenger isofix option for a little extra flexibility, and the rear sunblinds. Both our current cars have fully adaptive xenon mainbeams with the dynamic beam masking for light sources in front, I recently had a courtesy car for a month in winter with non adaptive LED's and really missed this so I currently think the superb's matrix lights are a must - I've not seen or read much about how good they are.

 

Recently have had a poke superb estates at the Newbury and Oxford dealers, an L&K and SE L. Setting my driver seat position and then sitting behind that I have 4" space in front of my knees . Also visited a VW dealer and in the passat it was about 3". In a golf (estate or hatch) my knees are just pressed into the seat fabric in front. In the SE L superb  did find my head was in the roof lining with the drivers seat in the lowest position using (the large round electronic button held in the down direction), I want to check if this is the same in a sportline. The rear view mirror was below my eye level. In the rear seat the side of the roof above the door opening pushes my head inwards towards the centre of the car a little. The car did not have the pan roof. I am surprised as I don't remember this in the golf hatch, will go and sit in my wife's car to double check.

 

Would get the superb with pcp, was considering buying through drivethedeal.

 

A warm welcome to the Forum Pete !  Yes, when I was looking I was well impressed with the seating in the Octavia both in front and after setting it up in the drivers' side, went and sat in the seat behind and had plenty of knee room.  Mind you I'm only 6'2" or whatever that is in Metric😁